Known for Directing
Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American screenwriter, novelist and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes. He was born Samuel Michael Fuller in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin Rabinovitch, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, and Rebecca Baum, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. After immigrating to America, the family's surname was changed from Rabinovitch to "Fuller" possibly by inspiration of a Doctor who arrived in America on the Mayflower. At the age of 12, he began working in journalism as a newspaper copyboy. He became a crime reporter in New York City at age 17, working for the New York Evening Graphic. He broke the story of Jeanne Eagels' death. He wrote pulp novels and screenplays from the mid-1930s onwards. Fuller also became a screenplay ghostwriter but would never tell interviewers which screenplays that he ghost-wrote explaining "that's what a ghost writer is for". During World War II, Fuller joined the United States Army infantry. He was assigned to the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, and saw heavy fighting. He was involved in landings in Africa, Sicily, and Normandy and also saw action in Belgium and Czechoslovakia. In 1945 he was present at the liberation of the German concentration camp at Falkenau and shot 16 mm footage which was used later in the documentary Falkenau: The Impossible. For his service, he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and the Purple Heart. Fuller used his wartime experiences as material in his films, especially in The Big Red One (1980), a nickname of the 1st Infantry Division. After his controversial film "White Dog" was shelved by Paramount pictures, Fuller moved to France, and never directed another American film. Fuller eventually returned to America. He died of natural causes in his California home. In November 1997, the Directors Guild held a three hour memorial in his honor, hosted by Curtis Hanson, his long time friend and co-writer on White Dog. He was survived by his wife Christa and daughter Samantha.
Born
August 12, 1912
Died
October 30, 1997 (age 85)
Birthplace
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Filmography
148 films, 11 shows


The Big Red One: The Reconstruction
2005 · 2h 43m
country: United States
A re-working, re-editing, and restructuring of Sam Fuller's The Big Red One bringing it closer as originally envisioned by the late filmmaker. It includes forty-seven additional minutes which was not utilized in the film's original release. Supervised by Richard Schickel, Peter Bogdanovich, and editor Bryan McKenzie.


The Madonna and the Dragon
1990 · 1h 30m
country: France
Exposé of two news photographers covering the People's Revolution in the Philippines.


The Day of Reckoning
1990 · 53m
country: Unknown
A young man begins to have terrifying nightmares after visiting his obsessive uncle's automated chicken farm.


Street of No Return
1989 · 1h 33m
country: France
A rock star-turned-bum, his vocal chords severed at the height of his career for the love of a woman, drunkenly roams the city, torn apart by sponsored race riots. When accused of murder, he may have the chance to get revenge on the magnate who maimed him.


Thieves After Dark
1984 · 1h 38m
country: France
A crime story set in Paris about a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple -- how they got together and how they are pursued for a murder they never committed.


White Dog
1982 · 1h 30m
country: United States
Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties.Today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals; the human being.


The Big Red One
1980 · 1h 53m
country: United States
A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.


The Meanest Men in the West
1978 · 1h 31m
country: United States
Bronson and Marvin star as murderous half-brothers who are running from the law as well as each other. A climatic confrontation proves to each of them just how mean the other can be. "The Meanest Men in the West" is actually an amalgam of two episodes of the hit 1960's TV series, "The Virginian." In one installment, a wealthy man's daughter is kidnapped by a nasty gunslinger. But the crime is only just a means for the ruffian to draw the tough title character into a blood- thirsty revenge scheme. In the second, a drifter burglarizes the Shiloh ranch. Then an unhinged girl relies on the man to aid in her flight from home.


Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
1972 · 2h 8m
country: Germany
A private detective infiltrates a gang of drug-dealing extortionists who prey on politicians.


Shark
1969 · 1h 32m
country: Mexico
A gunrunner loses his cargo near a small coastal Sudanese town so he's stuck there. When a woman hires him to raid a sunken ship in the shark-infested waters, he sees a chance to compensate for his losses. He's not the only one.


The Naked Kiss
1964 · 1h 33m
country: United States
A former prostitute works to create a new life for herself in a small town, but a shocking discovery could threaten everything.


Shock Corridor
1963 · 1h 42m
country: United States
With the help of his girlfriend Cathy and Dr. Fong, a psychiatrist, ambitious journalist Johnny Barrett poses as a madman in order to be admitted to a mental institution where a bloody murder has been committed.


Merrill's Marauders
1962 · 1h 38m
country: United States
Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), aka "Merrill's Marauders", behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina, pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point.


Underworld U.S.A.
1961 · 1h 39m
country: United States
A bitter young man sets out to get back at the gangsters who murdered his father.


The Crimson Kimono
1959 · 1h 22m
country: United States
Two detectives clash over the hunt for a burlesque dancer’s killer in Los Angeles’ Japanese district.


Verboten!
1959 · 1h 33m
country: United States
A young American serviceman stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his future after falling in love with a German woman.


Dogface
1959 · 26m
country: United States
This unaired pilot for a series Fuller pitched to CBS about a U.S. infantry troop fighting its way through Nazi-held North Africa offers a fascinating new angle on Fuller’s relationship with the average foot soldier and moral complexity of war.


Forty Guns
1957 · 1h 20m
country: United States
An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshal arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.


Run of the Arrow
1957 · 1h 26m
country: United States
When the South loses the war, Confederate veteran O'Meara goes West, joins the Sioux, takes a wife and refuses to be an American but he must choose a side when the Sioux go to war against the U.S. Army.


China Gate
1957 · 1h 37m
country: United States
Near the end of the French phase of the Vietnam War, a group of mercenaries are recruited to travel through enemy territory to the Chinese border.


House of Bamboo
1955 · 1h 42m
country: United States
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.


Hell and High Water
1954 · 1h 43m
country: United States
A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American plot that may lead to World War III. Mixes deviously plotted schoolboy fiction with submarine spectacle and cold war heroics.


Pickup on South Street
1953 · 1h 20m
country: United States
In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.


Park Row
1952 · 1h 23m
country: United States
In 1880s New York City newspaper district, a dedicated journalist manages to set up his own paper. It is an immediate success but attracts increasing opposition from one of the bigger newspapers and it's heiress owner.


Fixed Bayonets!
1951 · 1h 32m
country: United States
The story of a platoon during the Korean War. One by one, Corporal Denno's superiors are killed until it comes to the point where he must try to take command responsibility.


The Steel Helmet
1951 · 1h 25m
country: United States
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.


The Baron of Arizona
1950 · 1h 37m
country: United States
The U.S. government recognizes land grants made when the West was under Spanish rule. This inspires James Reavis to forge a chain of historical evidence that makes a foundling girl the Baroness of Arizona. Reavis marries the girl and presses his claim to the entire Arizona territory.


I Shot Jesse James
1949 · 1h 21m
country: United States
Bob Ford murders his best friend Jesse James in order to obtain a pardon that will free him to marry his girlfriend Cynthy. The guilt-stricken Ford soon finds himself greeted with derision and open mockery throughout town. He travels to Colorado to try his hand at prospecting in hopes that marriage with Cynthy is still in the cards.


V-E +1
1945 · 21m
country: United States
The silent 16 mm footage that makes up "V-E +1" documents the burial of beaten and emaciated Holocaust victims found by Allied forces in the Nazi concentration camp at Falkenau, Czechoslovakia, as World War II ended in Europe.